Baseball

“I wrote 63 songs this year. They’re all about Jeter.” Just kidding. The game we love, the players we hate, and more.

Culture and Criticism

From Norman Mailer to Wendy Pepper — everything on film, TV, books, music, and snacks (shut up, raisins), plus the Girls’ Bike Club.

Donors Choose and Contests

Helping public schools, winning prizes, sending a crazy lady in a tomato costume out in public.

Stories, True and Otherwise

Monologues, travelogues, fiction, and fart humor. And hens. Don’t forget the hens.

The Vine

The Tomato Nation advice column addresses your questions on etiquette, grammar, romance, and pet misbehavior. Ask The Readers about books or fashion today!

The Vine: January 18, 2002
January 18, 2002 · No Comment

Dearest Sars,
I have a best friend, Boy X; I also have a problem. Around the same time we became friends, we also became, bluntly, fuck-buddies. This went on for four years. We’d stop for no …

The Vine: January 17, 2002
January 17, 2002 · No Comment

Sars,
After your grammar rant, you’re the new hero of my editorial department — so I figured that you’d be a good person to pose this question to.
How, in the name of all that’s holy, does …

The Vine: January 15, 2002
January 15, 2002 · No Comment

Dear Sarah,
My problem is one that seems like it should be so obvious to solve. I get clingy and needy when I am with a guy. It frustrates the hell out of me. I am …

Deliberate This
January 14, 2002 · No Comment

Today, my fellow jurors and I heard the fifth day of testimony in the case. Today, my fellow jurors and I watched as the courtroom turned into A/V Club, with videos and x-rays and dry-erase …

The Vine: January 11, 2002
January 11, 2002 · No Comment

Sars,
Help me out here…I know the honest truth in the situation but I think I need to hear it said. Okay?
I share an apartment with my best friend for the past year. Only problem…we have …

The Vine: January 10, 2002
January 10, 2002 · No Comment

Dear Sars,
Here’s my problem:
I have a friend I haven’t talked to in a few weeks. It all started with her giving me a birthday present, and me not thanking her for it within three days. …

Oh, It’s Blind, All Right
January 9, 2002 · No Comment

I have a good relationship with the doormen in my building. We chit-chat about baseball; we gossip about the other people in the building. I don’t tell anyone when I round a corner and see …

The Vine: December 27, 2001
December 27, 2001 · No Comment

Sars,
I have met a great guy — The One, I think, and he thinks I am that person for him also.We’ve only been dating a short time — less than a month — but the …

The Tooth Is Out There
December 17, 2001 · No Comment

As Wing Chun pointed out on Fametracker last week, Tom Cruise is the biggest movie star in the world right now. Everyone in the English-speaking world recognizes his face; everyone in the English-speaking world can …

The Vine: December 14, 2001
December 14, 2001 · No Comment

Hi Sars,
I need a bit of a point in the right direction, and from what I’ve seen you’re the person who can probably come up with the right way to go.
Six months ago, my best …